At Spotswood’s newest drinks spot, a brassy, Latin-tinged song plays while a couple browses well-stocked shelves of wine and beer. Customers share cheese and charcuterie platters on a communal table. Large floor-to-almost ceiling windows look across the Hudsons Road shopping strip.

The neighbourhood is already home to venues, including Two Birds Brewery, Candied Bakery, The Duchess of Spotswood, and Spottiswoode Hotel, but a wine bar still feels like a welcome addition. Hudsons Road Wine & Beer stocks roughly 200 wines and the same again of beers, and has a deli cabinet filled with cured meats, pate, and a range of cheese – all of which is available to enjoy in the relaxed shopfront. There are also six wines by the glass and two beers on tap.

Co-owners Leigh Boin and Alistair Smith opened the bar and store in mid-August. “It’s a beautiful community,” says Smith. “It’s like a country town.”

The duo met after their partners struck up a friendship at a local dog park in 2015. Boin had just finished a sourdough-making course and Smith had an obsessive interest in good food and wine. They came up with the idea for Hudsons over a beer at Two Birds.

“It was pretty clear there was some food and drink synergy going on there,” Boin says. “I’d had thoughts on and off for maybe 10 years to open different iterations of a deli, proper cafe or full New Orleans-style bar.”

Both owners live in the west, and they have stuck with local designers and suppliers where possible. Bread comes from Candied Bakery, and plants and flowers are courtesy of A Bunch of Cakes, located across the road. Spotswood furniture maker Quazi Design did the honours with the tables and chairs, while the bar top comes from nearby Heidelberg West’s Lex Furniture, and is made of reclaimed wood from Barwon Heads Pier. Ham comes from Andrew’s Of Yarraville.

Boin’s background is in marketing, while Smith is a classically trained pianist who has worked on musicals including Strictly Ballroom and The Book of Mormon, so he gets control of the playlist. Boin says if it were up to him, the soundtrack would be “pretty much nothing but Pearl Jam”.